- There you go, wasn't too hard.
G'day folks, Uncle Knackers here.
Now look, the mitre saw,
or if you're in America also known as the chop saw,
as a beginner woodworker would have to be one of
the most important tools you can have in your workshop.
And to prove that point,
I've had this old steed for about 12 years,
maybe even longer and I use it basically
on every single job that I do.
Now currently it's looking a little worse for wear,
but this saw has done literally thousands of cuts
and still going strong.
And with that in today's video,
I wanna share with you my top seven basic mitre saw tips
that'll help you get started on the right foot.
Alrighty, let's fire this beast up.
Now tip number one is pretty self explanatory
and you've probably heard it a million times,
maybe even two million times,
and that is no ifs, no buts,
always use hearing and eye protection.
Now these machines can be pretty noisy, hence the ear muffs,
and they can also randomly throw out pieces of wood
at a great rate of knots which can easily damage
that soft tissue of the eye, hence the eye wear,
so you've just gotta be careful, use your common sense,
and wear their protective gear.
And speaking about common sense, tip number two,
most normal people when using a mitre soar will hold
the wood or the timber here,
and the saw blade is over there or vice versa,
they hold the timber or wood here,
and the blade comes down there.
And for the record, the saw's not plugged in,
so we've got no dramas.
Now the mortal sin with using a mitre saw,
and I see a lot of people do it,
I don't know why is they'll bring their hand across
the saw blade to hold the timber to complete the cut.
Now, trust me, it's only a matter of time before
that technique ends up in tears.
Now tip number three, relates to this mark here
which you see on a lot of mitre saw bases
and that's the recommended hand positioning
or the safe zone for your hands away from that blade.
And it's a really good reminder 'cause we all get
a bit blase at times using these machines
and to make that stand out even more,
you can paint some of this red nail polish inside
that groove, which will be even a bigger reminder.
Now, I know a lot of you guys have this in your toolboxes,
blokes like Sumo, Ben Hollist, and I think Mark Dainer
has some as well.
Those blokes are always redoing their nails.
Now for this next tip, do yourself a favour
and if you find yourself having to cut multiple pieces
of wood or timber to the same size,
just simply attach a block with a square end
and this is known as a stop block to the fence
of the mitre saw to your desired length
and then attach that with a clamp,
and you're good to go.
Too easy.
(upbeat music)
And then you have it, quick, easy and all cut to exactly
the same size.
Perfect.
Now just a quick cautionary tip when using a stock block,
and by the way, we're not plugged in,
and that is if you can resist the urge to lift your blade
until you've finished your cut
and the blade has stopped spinning.
Now, the reason for that is that currently this piece here
is tight between the stop block and the blade.
Now, if that blade is spinning in an upwards direction,
as you lift it can catch the piece just like that,
which can send it hurdling back to you
at a thousand miles per hour, which never ends well.
Now my bonus tip for when you're using a stock block
is that you'll notice on mine down the bottom here
I have a small 45 degree angled cut.
And the reason for that is that if your stop block only
has a square flat face and it doesn't have
a 45 degree angle down here,
you can get a build up of sawdust
on your mitre saw base plate and over time
that saw dust can get jammed between the piece
and the stop block, therefore altering
the length of your cut.
Now, the great thing about having that 45 degree angle down
the bottom there is that it helps you eliminate the issue
of the sawdust buildup between the piece
that we're trying to cut and the stop block,
'cause as you can see, the sawdust just gets channelled
into that little cavity down the bottom,
therefore not messing up the length of your cut.
Beautiful.
Now the next question you may wanna ask is,
but what if I need to cut multiple pieces of wood
to the same size,
but I can't clamp the stop block to the mitre saw
because the pieces are too long?
Simple, just add an extension fence to your mitre saw
then to simply clamp the stop block to that.
I'll show you how to do it.
Just go out and find a long piece of wood,
and then just simply place it hard up against the fence
of the mitre saw, then all you need to do is to attach
this long piece of wood to the fence through
the back via two holes on either side of the blade.
Now some saws come with those holes already pre-drilled,
mine didn't, so I had to drill those myself.
(upbeat music)
And then all you need to do is to get your tape measure
and hook it over the end of that fresh new cut,
come back your desired distance,
say it's 400 millimetres and place a mark
on your spanking new extension fence.
Go grab yourself a square and square that line down.
And then all we need to do is to get our stop block
and attach it to our extension fence with a clamp,
lining that edge up with our mark, just like that.
And we're good to go.
There you go, works like a charm.
Now this next tip is an absolute little ripper
and we'll be making a zero clearance plate
for the mitre saw base.
Now I know it sounds complicated, but it's not.
So if you follow me,
I'll show you what it does and how to make one.
And just very quickly, if you wanna see more videos,
just like this one, make sure you hit that subscribe
and notification button down below.
Good stuff.
Now, if you take a look at the base of your mitre saw,
you'll notice that the insert plate,
this yellow thing here has quite a large throat,
that's that gap.
Now it's made that way to give the saw blade room
when doing a bevelled cut.
Now for most carpentry jobs,
having that large gap there is perfectly fine,
but if you lay your board on the base, nice and flat,
you'll notice that where that gap is right there,
the board isn't fully supported.
So what happens is when your blade comes down
to make the cut, you'll finish up with a nice clean cut
on the top, nice clean cut on the face,
but the bottom and the back will have tear-out,
which is what you can see here where the top
and the front is nice and clean,
but the back edge and the bottom has tear-out.
Now, the other issue with having that large gap there
is that if you're cutting a sliver off your piece of wood,
it can actually fall down inside that gap,
making it an absolute pain in the backside to get out.
So to rectify those problems,
we're going to make a zero clearance plate.
So just find yourself a thin sheet of ply,
about the length of your saw and a piece of wood
to go on top.
(upbeat music)
Now that cut's been made, this is essentially
a zero clearance plate,
which means that when you lay your board on top,
it's fully supported without that big gap down here,
which should help minimise tear-out on the bottom
and on the back.
And if you find yourself having to cut a small sliver,
it's a hard word to say,
because this is a zero clearance plate,
that small sliver wont fall down the gap.
Now, if we just check out this cut,
you'll see there's a little bit of tear-out on the bottom,
it's not too bad, and the back,
well that's virtually nonexistent.
Good stuff.
Now this next tip I think is absolute genius.
And it has to do with a safe cutting of small pieces of wood
with your mitre saw.
Now I actually stole this idea from the guys over
at Tool Metrix, so I've got to give credit
where credit's due.
And here it is, what I cracking little jig.
Now I have plans to make one of these down below
in the description box.
So if you want to have a crack at it,
go down there and check it out.
Now the issue we have with cutting small pieces of wood
is that because your fingers are so close to that blade,
it makes it incredibly dangerous.
So with my jig I've glued our rubber pad to the ply,
and then I've glued to the sandpaper to that rubber pad.
And that allows me to apply pressure
to the top of that piece of wood,
holding it safely in place, at the same time,
keeping my fingers and hand a safe distance away
from that blade making for a safe cut.
Love it.
Now I should also say that to safely use one
of these jigs, it's important to have
that zero clearance plate in place.
Now this next tip relates to the cutting of dowel,
especially small sections of dowel with your mitre saw.
I've got to give these dowels up.
They're killing me.
Now cutting dowel, especially small sections of dowel,
can be a little tricky as it's hard to hold,
and it can also unexpectedly spin in your fingers
as the blade hits it.
So to alleviate those issues,
I've gone out and I've made this snazzy little jig,
with a V in it, that's just two 45 degree angles,
and all you need to do is to drop the dowel into that V,
hold a it hard up against the fence
and then tightly with your fingers, and you're good to go.
Two easy.
Now, if you want some ideas
as to what beginner type projects to make
with your mitre saw, make sure you click
on one of my videos,
they'll be popping up over there very shortly.
Great tip knackers.
Well, I hope you enjoyed and found that video useful.
And if you did, a big thumbs up
would be greatly appreciated.
Alrighty, after all that, I think I need a cup of tea,
so till next time, be good, be safe,
and I'm out of here, cheers.